The Thousands

Get wheel, bro! It’s 2012 and there’s lots for you to catch up on. The secret’s out about Bamboo Basket, Prince Rama reviewed Sun Araw, Nine Lives are having their last show and House of Cards launch their bolo ties. You want more? Well we've got that too.

This week's covershot courtesy of Gabriel Woodmansey. Be a dude like our mate Gabe and send us your covershots. We'll love you long time.

The kooky queens behind Butt Magazine recently announced their latest issue shall be their last, and while gays everywhere mourn the passing with shrines of poppers and back issues of Drummer, it's nice to know there are newcomers able to fill the hole Butt has left.

Little Joe issue 3 is an inspiring jolt of same-sex creative juices as they apply to the film world. But straight folks needn't feel uninvited, since, in the words of another beloved queer publication on ongoing hiatus, "You don't have to be gay to get it".

Editor Sam Ashby digs deep beneath the footnotes to true obscurities; director David DeCoteau talks about his (hilariously) homoerotic horror films; articles on and full color photos of camp b-movie gore maestro Andy Milligan (he shot his films and sewed his costumes at home!). The cover story features frank, funny Bronx-bred 8mm auteur George Kuchar, who was interviewed just weeks before he sadly passed away.

There's also a tribute to Times Square when it was sleazy, a Mike Mills zine (extracted from his Drawings From The Film Beginners book) and way more, all beautifully articulated in prose and pics. I know I raved about Little Joe #2 not-that-long-ago but if Issue 3 sold out before you could buy a copy, I would never be able to show my face at the Gay Mafia meetings again.

Prince Rama hearts Sun Araw. Sun Araw hearts Prince Rama. The two bands are currently on tour together sound-tracking the summer of 2012. If you remember it, you weren't there. Taraka Larson from Prince Rama has been kind enough to spare some time from Hare Krishna chanting to review Sun Araw's latest album. Thanks, Taraka! We owe you a happy one.

Taraka Larson: If architecture is frozen music, then Ancient Romans is a sonic testament to the inverse; that music is a process of slowly unfreezing architecture.

There is a melting, a churning, a trans-mutating of stone to song, of song to sand, of sand to dust, of dust to ashes, of ashes to fire, of fire to smoke, and smoke to sunlight. At times, the clanging drums chisel away at the limestone slabs, the features of an unknown beloved slowly taking form in the petrified world of immortality. At other times, organs wash over the stonework, smoothing over any features that cling to identification, polishing their surfaces clean 'til they shine with a brilliance only the sun could inhabit.

The camera lense is tilted straight into the sunbeam, and each song draws the bright burning sphere closer and closer into focus. Look now and behold the eternal light but be blinded forever. Look away and be doomed to see only a stadium full of shadows. The choice is yours, and Ancient Romans does not presume to carry the answer. The needle passes over the record as the sun passes over the temple's oculus, igniting the interior in luminous resonance. Statues melt into song. Columns melt into golden silence. The record spins on the sacrificial altar, a lost lense.

It's fitting really that the British artist/tea-lover/skateboarder French, whose website is aptly titled Funeral French, is the last person to be exhibiting at the Nine Lives Gallery. Over the past few years, Nine Lives have put together some really memorable shows, both at their old space above Mellino's which was converted from a dingy hoarder's den, and at their current space in Winn Street. The boys are taking a break, and even though they'll have a few 'pop up' shows here and there (which we'll inform you about), they're waving goodbye to permanence and embracing the ephemeral.

French made a lasting impression last time he was here, with his morbid, surrealistic but often hilarious illustrations, and he's helping Nine Lives go out with a bang. He's contributed to the ouvres of labels like Carhartt, Uniqlo, Vans, Nike, and music labels like Modular, Southern and well… the list goes on. This all-rounder, who has extended tenfold on disgruntled highschool doodling, is exhibiting new prints, a new zine and other assorted art goods. Make sure you head down and join French in farewelling a space that hosted some of our favourite art shows. Apocalypse party anyone?

Bolo ties are the business wear of western folk. Though traditionally worn by Texan politicians in big white hats, they’re not the only ones to enjoy a bit of braided leather fun of late. In this current climate of Navajo prints and raw hide leather, us fashion folk are putting up our dream catchers in hope of snagging a bit of Little House on the Prairie style.

Hearing our calls across imaginary corn fields is bolo tie-crafting, QCA design graduate Ashiya. Considering her hobby, her qualifications and her pretty cool name, it was only a matter of time before Ashiya added some bolo ties to her rising label House of Cards (stay tuned because later on this year she releases a full collection).

The ties naturally come with a twist though. So you don't EVER get mistaken for a member of the NRA, House of Cards have created suedette ties with crystal's such as Aragonite and Stibnite, known for their ability to calm and protect respectively. Each tie is sold with a card explaining the crystals properties.

Where Ian Fleming’s espionage is flip and glamorous, John Le Carré’s is dreary and cynical; George Smiley is the anti-James Bond. Still, director Tomas Alfredson (Let The Right One In) wrings unexpected elegance from the ugly ’70s using beautifully composed, observational shots and camera movements. In Alfredson’s hands, the MI6 offices – “the Circus” – become suffocating brown panopticons whose tea-sipping inhabitants scrutinise each other’s smallest gestures, squirming with fear that their secrets will come to light.

Control (John Hurt) suspects there’s a mole in the Circus when agent Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) is disastrously ambushed in Budapest. When rogue field agent Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy) seems to confirm this news to his supervisor Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch), retired spy George Smiley (Gary Oldman) is persuaded to unearth the mole. Who’s working for Soviet spymaster Karla – thuggish Roy Bland (Ciaran Hinds)? Suave Bill Haydon (Colin Firth)? Conniving Percy Alleline (Toby Jones)? Or urbane Toby Esterhase (David Dencik)?

The plot’s intricate, but it unfurls lucidly, with plenty of tension and evocative micronarrative moments in which bewildered spies reveal the sacrifices and compromises they’ve made for their work. Perhaps the removal of Smiley’s final illusions makes him the perfect investigator.

Threadbare.co is here. Just like that, Teresa Gomez and Fiona Hiette’s Brisbane fashion portal lets you bypass the eBays and other big corporates and get spunky local and overseas boutique wear in close to an instant.

On their pages you'll find local labels including Ellery, with their latest resort collection and chic sunglasses; After The Apple, who make bags for the every day lady; and Rachael Ruddick, whose latest collection Electrique Avenue combines chic and mystique, from tie-dyed totes to coloured leather wallets.

Threadbare also stock a range of internationals like Temps Des Reves, the sultry LA-based Naven and the eclectically electric jewellery label, Fallon.

We all love shopping at one our city’s growing number of local boutiques, but sometimes, just sometimes, you really want a foreign runway look from far way without the many week mailbox stake out. Now you can shop locally via the internet.

Brisbane has a couple of decent Asian eateries to its name, but there’s only enough room in my heart for one Chinese restaurant. Bamboo Basket has been earning rivers of praise as long as the Yangtze ever since it opened. I tried to keep it secret, but word got out, and it became harder and harder to get a table here. Recently they bought up next door and expanded their capacity two-fold, so I figure there’s room for me to let everyone know about it now.

The food here is closer to ‘traditional’ northern Chinese cuisine than, say, honey chicken. Instead, you can try pan-fried duck flatbread, beef pancake, salt and pepper tofu, shallot cake, a whole gamut of spring roll and a huge variety of dumplings. They also offer a dim sum menu for all-day yum cha.

Everything here is delicious which means it's literally impossible to order the wrong meal. The dumplings are juicy, the soups are piping hot and the stir-fries are heavy on the vegetables. You can see the chefs hand-pulling noodles right before your eyes for their signature dishes, so you know everything is fresh. They say the only way to show you're enjoying your food in China is to eat really loudly... the sound of soup slurping never made me so happy.

If you have a pathological fear of performing but have always wanted to partake in some sort of communal musical frivolity, read on. I have a solution to your problem. Turn the fate of your lapsed sightreading skills around! Erase the scars left by pushy, gospel-obsessed music teachers! Eliminate the possibility of having all eyes on you by hiding behind someone else's head! Sing quietly along to Talking Heads in your bedroom no longer, my friend. Sing loudly and proudly in a choir!

The things you'll need to join a choir are as follows:
1. A voice - if it can hold a tune, that's a bonus.
2. That is all.

Choirs come in various shapes and sizes. We recommend joining a small themed choir - for example, 'we only sing sad songs', or 'we only sing epic arrangements of Beyonce tracks' as opposed to jumping straight into Handel's Messiah or trying out for the Morricone 100-plus ensemble.

Hey, why not set up a choir with your friends? It works best if you know some boys with deep voices and some girls with high ones (or, y'know, vice versa), and it will help if at least one of you is somewhat music-literate. There will always be one person who is great on the volume but not so great on the pitch, and another who was a child prodigy and will demand that everyone pay extra close attention to the 6/8 timing in the coda instead of just bumbling on through. Everyone else will fit somewhere in between, and after a rough practice or two with some Googled sheet music your dulcet tones will be bringing sweet a capella action to lounge rooms, parks, stoops and concert halls in no time. Christmas is a great time to get started - we promise your neighbours will really appreciate a rousing rendition of Good King Wenceslas at 3am on a Saturday. True!

Dear Erlend Øye, I love you. I want to bear the fruit of your ginger loins. Now that’s out of the way, German-Norwegian outfit The Whitest Boy Alive is Brisbane-bound, bringing many reasons to lose your shit. The quirky indie-electronic group are masters of shy audience banter, gentle finger-pointing dance moves and modest shrugs. Oh and they play f*#cking awesome music.

After recently being featured in The Financial Review, local fashion house, Francis Leon, is moving on up (literally) to a bigger and better store. Join them in waving goodbye to their old Studio One space, have a slushy cocktail with them and cash in on the sale. Forget that image of hairy-man-in-sauna.

Let's stay 'up late' with our friend GoMA. The new after hours Matisse program, with an emphasis on all things acoustic, is pretty stunning and kicks-off this week with an appearance by Eleanor Friedberger sans big bro. The fairer, foxier half of the Fiery Furnaces will be performing from her debut solo album, Last Summer. For a prelude, DJ jazz, drinks, nibbles and a conversation with Anne Wallace will take place in the Drawing Room.

Forget your troubles, grab yourself a bottle of whatever and make your way to the clothes racks of Apartment where Yeo and Big Strong Brute will be serenading shoes on a laid back Saturday afternoon. BYO Yeo!

What is this music?! Bizarre, yes. Unique, yes. Non-replicable, yes! According to our Melbourne bros, Tune-Yards put on an absolutely killer live performance at Sugar Mountain too. With so much anticipation you're also going to want to get there early to see Mitzi and Outerwaves 'cos gigs like this don't come around every week.

All you need to know about this LA based violinist / electronic composer is that she's playing violin for Kanye. Not to discredit her many other talents, including being a wiz at Ableton Live, scoring soundtracks, being able to put up with, no doubt, many an 'industry' douchebag (this is the real LA, not Wahlberg's), and working with the likes of Sage Francis and PlatEAU, but she's touring with Kanye. Being the smart lass she is, she's taking a step back and letting you know how much of his music is actually made by him, and how much is made by his backing band (and Songify™). She's got so much more than Kanye.

Eatin' off some melamine on my mezzanine. Doo-de-doo. Smothering my crumpets in that margarine. Any of you dis' my melamine I put yo' head on the guillotine. Boyfriend be taking me on picnics where we use our melamine. Cooking up home-made burgers using pressurised kerosene. An illustration of a burger! An owl with two heads! A monster! They're Douglas & Hope melamine plates with work from Australian artists including Dawn Tan, Dylan Martorell, Ghostpatrol, Miso and Miranda Skoczek on them.

These artists plates will enhance your crockery credibility at dinner parties, won't break when you drop them, and will contribute a large sum to your retirement fund when you get them evaluated on Antiques Roadshow in 2043. Forget your Australian Super Fund, these plates are a real investment in your future. Buy one over at Douglas & Hope's new online store or try your luck here, because we have a Dawn Tan 'burger' plate to give away. (To enter, just answer the following question.)